Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We enjoyed our 5th cruise on the Dawn, service was good, a little slow in the main dining room for dinner a couple of times.My veal dinner in La Cucino was not very good, but the service was . The new private island Harvest Caye is huge , had a big pool and beautiful beach, lots of chaises but everything else (food+drinks) you have to pay extra for.The shows were very good.

Overall, the service was poor.....lines at the bar, restaurants including specialty were slow and staff seemed more interested in talking with guests than making sure folks had what they needed, except Cagney; their issue was they couldn't serve a lemon drop....no sweetener?  Most public women's bathrooms had at least one stall 'closed' the entire cruise.  The ports were nice and the excursions ok.  All aboard in the last port was 2 hrs earlier than scheduled, which made us 40min. late returning, good thing we booked thru the ship.

Pre-arranged for flowers / champagne in room and was there when we boarded. All personnel interactions very pleasant. Specialty dining was great, not lacking in quality or quantity.

Relatively small ship but stable in the weather experienced. A bit sloppy on the re-fit, paint spill and over-cover, some new paint already peeling. Balcony glass too clouded to see through. some railings loose etc. all small stuff that could easily be rectified (at a cost to their bottom line hence left as is).

Forget Excursions. Same can be had at each port for less $$$ IMHO!

We have been on 4 Norwegian cruise line cruises, my feeling is the cruise line is starting to go the way of the airlines finding ways to get less covered and more costs on of cruisers.

Our cabin was slightly larger than other cruises I have been on.  The food in the specialty restaurants was great!  The one problem we did have was at La Cucina, the Italian restaurant.  They got our reservation wrong and allowed walk-ins to take our reservation and we had to wait 45 minutes for a table to open up.  The only tables they had available was outside the restaurant with high chairs, which is not comfortable when you are a short person as I am and your legs dangle!  We did enjoy the tours we took.  They all had great guides.

The people on the ship were great and worked really hard to make sure she had a good time. I did not like Harvest Key Belize. We never really made it to Belize as far as I could tell. Harvest Key Belize. was like going to Six Flags. Its nice but you really don't feel think you in another country. That being said We had a great time over all and I have put down money on another cruise.

Very nice cruise on a renovated ship. The ship has been added to and there are numerous dead end corridors on the ship. Takes awhile to figure out how to get to certain areas of the ship. Food was just adequate this cruise. NCL prides itself on the 'dine whenever you like' system. That was novel when there were no specialty restaurants. Now every ship has a half a dozen special places to eat. We asked to be grouped with other people at meal time and it never happened. Part of the fun of going on a cruise is having dinner with different people. The internet as always is horrible!!! Cannot log on half the time, it is extremely slow when you are able to get on and many connections do not work. Also they have four!!!! computer stations for the entire ship. If they ran the ship by the same internet connections they offer their passengers they would have run aground years ago!!!

Let me say that the entertainment was very good.

Trying to get a dinner reservation for other than 5pm or after 8.30pm was next to impossible. The Myth of free style dining is that you have all of the choices the trouble is that unless you have upper suite rooms you have very limited times.

the ship is not user friendly you have to continually go up or down decks to get anywhere as many do not go the length of the ship.

I was on the Maiden Voyage on this ship and the booking issue is as bad as it was then.

I found the staff other than the room steward to be some what disengaged with the customers, and the drink packages certainly had issues for some travelers.

The wine staff of 4 people for a dining room of 900 could not give any level of service that would be considered acceptable.

the cruise locations were good but my issues with reservations and the ship layout, made this a disappointing cruise.

I have over 60 cruises to date.

ssseabreeze

The Dawn was a pleasant ship, although dated in some areas and in need of some cosmetic maintenance.  The buffet was not good,  Best eats are at O Sheehans, but the main dining room wasn't bad.  The staff was delightful.  Rode segways in Cozumel - great fun worth every penny.  Toured animal sanctuary in Roatan, loved it.  Harvest Caye (norwegian's private island) is so named in order that they may "harvest" more of your traveling dollars.  Costa Maya was unpleasant.  off the ship into a tourist shopping center where you are inundated by local vendors, some of which were exceedingly rude.  Days at sea were perfect.  Walkoff disembarkation was a mess.  Disorganized, long lines,  people cutting in from everywhere.  On board "extra" charges were excessive.  Felt I was being nickle and dimed to death.  Overall, just OK  Think I will stick with Princess.

I have been on 7 cruises before and this is the absolute worst one ever.  Please if you are thinking about going on Norwegian Dawn do your homework as I didn't because I thought maybe our friends going did already!!!  This boat is old, long, and narrow so you feel every move of it along the way.  I boat all the time, own my own and never been sea sick ever till onboard this ship.  The customer service at the desk is horrible.  The boat was with out water a couple nights when we came back to our balcony room and needed to shower and use the restroom.  There were 2 nights that the rooms and hallways smelled of bad sewage you had to leave your rooms to find fresh air.  Most of our group of 30 came down with a horrible illness and they did not care about helping us out besides going to the infirmary where 1 of our group did cost them $2100.  We will never sail with Norwegian again and neither is our whole group.  This puts a whole different picture on cruising these days as they don't care to take care of you like they used to!!!!

This was one of the best cruises I have ever taken.  The staff were excellent especially the bar tenders in the Gatsby Lounge (outstanding) and the Wine Cellar. Our cabin was lovely with a balcony suitable for the 3 of us adult women. If you are looking for a great ship and wonderful destinations this is the cruise for you. The food was excellent we dined quite a bit in the Special Dining Rooms.  The staff were very knowledgeable.  

Norwegian Dawn was a great cruise. The food was absolutely wonderful!  The entertainment was great!  The hospitality was awesome!  Our room steward, Angus, was exceptional!  The few extra hidden charges (tax on drinks and $13.50/day/person) was the only disappointing thing I found on the cruise.

we had great weather and relaxed by the pool a lot. Dinners were great in main dining but meat on buffet tended to be tough. Good lunch at O Sheehan! Food had too much salt for me. 3 of the 4 women's toilets on pool deck were out of order all week, also 1 pool shower. Cigar smoke somehow leaked into our room. We were given an air freshener and chocolate strawberries but no explanation. Lots of banging noises at night? Could hear music 2 floors up! We couldn't go to Harvest Caye, big disappointment 

This was our first cruise and we were not disappointed! The weather was perfect, the port stops beautiful, and the scuba diving and snorkeling were out of this world! We can't wait to go on smoother one!

Ship crew was very attentive! The America's Cup sailing excursion was a real treat.   Pool deck layout gave plenty of options for hanging out on days at sea. Missing out on stopping at Harvest Caye was a big disappointment 😩.  This was the reason we chose this cruise over others we considered. I wish some remuneration would have been offered. Overall, however, we had a great time!

This is my fifth cruise, and my third on Norwegian. I enjoy Norwegian's relaxed atmosphere and ease of dining (no need for dressing up). A variety of activities are offered if one wishes to join a group, and if not, there is plenty of time to relax around the poolside or have a drink at one of the many beverage bars. Even in the buffet, the food is good, though I find it better (fresher made) in the restaurants. The itinerary was enjoyable--learning about the Mayan culture at several stops. Crew members are always available, friendly, and helpful. Entertainment offerings were very good. Lines were short and fast for embarkation and disembarkation.

My S.O. (cabin 8009) dropped Dead on the beach at Costa Maya and I never would not have gotten thru the remainder of the cruise without the great staff...especially Helen, Asst. Customer Service Mgr.!     Before that I felt the everything was great except for the waiting line for the diningroom and having to miss out on Harvest Caye in Belize

Really enjoyed the ports of call on this cruise.  The cruise ship itself was a little disappointing.  The layout was basic only one pool very crowded.  The buffet was unappealing ate mostly in the O'Sheehan's Bar much better and tasteful food here, but a limited menu. Drinks were crazy expensive as well as the shore excursions.  Will probably stop buying excursions off the ship and wait to the port and buy there can really negotiate a better price.

     Favorite part of the cruise was staying in the suite on 12th deck and cruising with 4 other ladies that I worked with prior to retirement.  Our room steward spoiled us as well as our Butler bringing sweet treats to our room every day.  The specialty  dining we enjoyed.  The weather was great and we enjoyed the ports we visited.  Would have liked to visit the Harvest Caye Belize but for some reason ship could not get there.  The shows we went to were OK but not great.  

     The checking in was easy because of priority and getting off the ship was the easiest ever because of priority.  

I bought the cruise for much wife and my honeymoon so we decided to OKC get a balcony for this cruise instead of an interior room. When I first got the the room I was shocked to see the room was so big and even had a very good size bathroom. Every day our room was made in the morning and at night time and our room attendant paid very good attention to detail and even went above and beyond to fold my wife's personal blanket every night as well (that she had brought from home). The staff are some of the most friendly and well kept people I've ever met from the captain all the way down to the bartender. Every port we went to the Norwegian Dawn staff made sure we were on time if not early to so we had maximum time to spend at the port. There were so many food options to choose from on board that you will never get tired of eating the same thing. The service you are provided on Norwegians ships is the same whether you are in an interior room or a suite. They treat every guest as if they own a part of the ship and that goes for all of Norwegians ships as I have been on a fair share of them myself. There was one port that we were unable to go to do to weather and instead of the Captain deciding to skip it he put forth the extra effort to find another port nearby that we could go to and found excursions at that port as well within a nights time. I couldn't be more happy with the cruise and how it went. I have already booked another cruise with norwegian in 2018